Digital Activism: The Message Map

With the advent of so many communications channels today via the Web and mobile networks, creating, executing and delivering a message by digital diaspora groups or social activists, protestors etc., is increasingly easy and very low cost. Consciously or not, and in most cases it is a conscious plan, there is a method to the seeming madness.

In our research, we’ve plotted out the most common route a group will take to push their message. The map below shows this process. In many cases an activist group or social group has an idea of the channels to leverage (i.e. they will establish a Facebook group or a blog/microsite to be the “focal point” of the message) then they will distribute the message across other digital channels such as Twitter. Simultaneously, they will address traditional methods of attracting industrial news media such as international news broadcasters, radio and print publications. Using digital media channels however, they can drive an issue much faster and set the news agenda when they garner a large following with uptake of the message. This was shown in Egypt when Twitter was actively engaged by the protesters on January 25, 2011; The first “hashtag” for the protests was #Jan25 and the second most popular was #Egypt. The volume went viral rapidly in the wake of the Tunisia uprisings. Although it was only part “organized” a form of “digital mob mentality” (a blog on that to come) took over. The noise was loud enough that news media began to pick up the story.

While we aren’t, for obvious reasons, unveiling our entire look at process in the case of using digital media channels to communicate activism, this map can provide some key insights to the process that follows. Even as the Egyptian government disconnected Web access, people found a way around using mobile networks (we’ll have another map on that shortly.)